THE STUDENTS’ Union Autumn Elections, which opened at 9am today, have been suspended and postponed until Monday October 29th, following the acknowledgement of “technical difficulties”.

The Elections are being held to form an Executive of part-time officers, made up of current students, with the elected officers going on to represent the students of Aberystwyth on a variety of issues over the course of this academic year. Voting was due to take place online at the Students’ Union website over October 24th and 25th.

However, when students logged into the Union website and continued on to the voting form, multiple errors were found.

Despite the voting registration form providing the opportunity for voters to select self-definition categories, therefore allowing for votes to be cast in issues which affected the individual, the online form went on to offer students the chance to vote for candidates outside of their selected self-definitions. Students who no longer live in University halls could have voted for Halls Representatives. Female students who self-define as women reported that they were unable to do so on the form and as such could not vote on female-centric issues.

Head of Membership Development for NUS Wales and Returning Officer for these elections, Emily Cannon, called candidates to an emergency meeting at midday to discuss what was to be done about the problems, which were discovered soon after the elections opened. It was decided that, in light of the complications, the Autumn Elections should be postponed until 9am Monday 29th October, closing at 7pm on Tuesday 20th. Any votes that were cast whilst the form was open this morning have been ruled null and void and will need to be recast upon re-opening.

Any opinions expressed in articles on this website are solely those of the contributors and are not to be attributed to the Aberystwyth Student Media committee, Aberystwyth University Students’ Union or Aberystwyth University. The acceptance of advertising by Aberystwyth Student Media is not an indication that Aber Student Media, its editors or contributors or anyone associated with Aberystwyth Student Media either supports or opposes any activity in which the advertiser may participate.